Fizzlehttp://fizzle.co
Honest Video Training for Online Business BuildersTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:39:38 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.150+ Sites for Free Images, Fonts & Icons for Your Bloghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/Lz7Vh4ap8Zg/50-sites-free-images-fonts-icons-blog
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/50-sites-free-images-fonts-icons-blog#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 13:00:52 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17711 You want images on your website and social media because you need to stand out and entice people to your website. You want to know how to make great images because humans — no matter how smart — have multiple senses, and, in the world of multimedia, we get to play on and tempt multiple senses. ]]>

You want images on your website and social media because you need to stand out and entice people to your website.

You want to know how to make great images because humans — no matter how smart — have multiple senses, and, in the world of multimedia, we get to play on and tempt multiple senses.

You want great images for your blog and social interactions because your ideas, your prose, your copy, your content is good but keeps getting overlooked in the cesspool of modern media.

No one argues anymore about how important eye-catching images are to your social media strategy — it’s a foregone conclusion. (However, I have included some links below if you want to get into those studies.)

Look at Favstar and see which are the most popular tweets of your heroes online. Are there some images up there? Are they all images?

(Here’s @patflynn’s for example. Notice any patterns? BTW, I did a ton of research on this topic in prep for a course and learned a bunch that’s changed how I think about how best to use images. More on that later.)

And who could forget this little ditty (as I write this it’s one of the most popular tweets of all time):

Images are visceral. They can speak richly and deeply in a split second, deep down in our lizard brain. They can… but most of the crap you’ll see online is limp drivel, a waste of your time and mine.

It’s not rocket science! It’s human. It’s in you. You can absolutely put together images that compel and ignite… but you’ve got to understand some key concepts.

Directors and screenwriters know how important it is to show not just tell. One day I’ll geek out with you on some of the psychology and biology of effective images, but today lets focus on something much more actionable.

Let’s get down to the brass tacks, exactly what you need to get your hands dirty, the tangibles.

You need to know where to find images, fonts and icons that ARE going to help you stand out and get attention and that AREN’T going to break the bank or get you sued.

To that end, I’ve broken up the info in this post like so (all of them ordered with my favorite towards the top):

A quick note on copyright

Getting sued for using images you don’t have the right to use is a real thing! How can we steer clear of ALL danger?

We don’t have enough time to cover all the bases here (and most of the resources in this guide have totally free, public domain images), so I link to some more info at the bottom of this post. For now just follow these rules:

don’t use copyrighted images… assume every image on the internet is copyrighted.

Never use an image from Google Images or any other image source you don’t fully understand.

Only use images from trusted sources. (All of the sources on this page are trustworthy.)

Pay attention to the license of each image. Most of the sites below share totally free, public domain images; you can use them however you want. Others, however, require author attribution, or contain limitations like no commercial use. Some are free and others require payment, etc. The license of all photos you’ll find on the sites below is easy to find and understand on those sites. So, do a check through on the image before you download and use it.

A quick glossary of common license terms

You may come across these terms as you peruse licenses on images you want to use:

Public Domain — “… belonging or being available to the public as a whole, and therefore not subject to copyright”∞. Free to use and edit and mangle and publish as you see fit forever and ever amen!

Attribution — “You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use”∞. Confession: I normally simply include the creator’s name and a link to the original image (example), and it sounds like I may be doing that wrong and should be including: a copyright notice, a license notice and a disclaimer notice as well.

Share Alike — “If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original”∞. So if you use an image with Share Alike on it’s license, you have to be ok with others taking your image and doing a similar thing with it. I’m normally just fine with this.

Non Commercial — “You may not use the material for commercial purposes. A commercial use is one primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation”∞. So is that free email giveaway commercial or non commercial? The confusion is warranted (even CreativeCommons is confused about it). Go with your gut on this one, I do.

DISCLAIMER: None of the above is legal advice. I am not a lawyer. Don’t take my word for it. Etc.

How I’d use this guide

Find 3-5 image sources you really like. Limit yourself to these. If it were me, for example, I’d choose New Old Stock and the Library/Museum flickr accounts (because I like old stuff and they’re all public domain).

Understand the licenses of those sources. Do you need to link to the source? Are they ok for commercial use? Take a few minutes to understand how your chosen sites allow you to use their images.

Bookmark those sites and invest some time getting used to how they organize things. Maybe start collecting images in a folder on your computer or Evernote. You’ll never know when a great idea will strike.

I’d find 2 fonts I like from the links below, downloading and installing them on my system. One kinda funky and fun, the other readable and solid, both unique feeling to me.

I’d create 1 or 2 templates (I use photoshop, but you could use Canva or SumoPaint or Pixlr or something else) with an image as the background and some text on top how I like it. I’d follow a template like this but much larger.

Creating an image for every blog post is now as important (and accessible) to me as creating a great headline. I’ve got bookmarks, fonts and templates.

(There’s much more we cover in the course about coming up with your own ideas, using a swipe file of tactics, the best image sizes, etc., but this is a great starter setup and far better than what most have!)

Hipster/Modern Images

You see images like these all over the place today. Faded and stylized images that create a kind of modern vintage look that feels well worn like your favorite pair of jeans. Below is our favorite places to find these kinds of images.

Note: these kinds of images are getting very popular, so standing out means using your own effects, filters and maybe even text. In the shareable images course I get into several options and tutorials and Canva definitely comes out as a top tool for this.

TheStocks.im — This one combines several of the sites linked to below in one interface. It’s a Hipster Image paradise! (But can be a little clunky).

Pexels — This one seems to have more images than most of the others (or so it seems from my google images trick below).

StockSnap.io — Another site pulling in images that a lot of the others have. The site works well.

Vintage Images

These are truly vintage sources for images. Most of them come simply from government archives. So come to these ready to search around a bit. (I love picking images like these… the vintage look can be a unique identifier.)

Creative Commons Repositories

Creative Commons is a kind of license many creators use to for their work. There are different licenses with different restrictions which you can learn about here. These repositories aren’t curated, they’re simply collections of images with specific kinds of licenses. Most require attribution, i.e., including a link to the original image somewhere on the page you use the image.

Note: The only CC licenses I go for are “Attribution” and “Attribution-ShareAlike.” With many of the sites below you can choose to search only for those kinds of images.

compfight.com — simply searches Flickr and does a damn fine job of it. You can filter by license on the left hand side. Make sure you notice what license the photo you use has, you’ll definitely need to attribute a link to the author of the image.

foter.com — same as above: make sure you pay attention to the license of each image as they vary.

Conclusion

Sources for images, fonts and icons like this are always changing. New ones pop up, old favorites die out. If there’s some you really like, let us know in the comments and I’ll add the best ones to the post over time.

Hope this is helpful for you! If you want to create your own strategy and go further with your images definitely check out the Shareable Images Course. I’d love to help you in that way as well.

Remember: you’re going to be making stuff on the internet for a long time. Images aren’t going anywhere, so invest some time understanding the landscape and tools, create a process that works for you and put together some stuff you and your audience love! Break a leg.

Want some key tips for stunning images?

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/50-sites-free-images-fonts-icons-blog/feed15http://fizzle.co/sparkline/50-sites-free-images-fonts-icons-blogHey, Could I Ask You a Few Questions? The Art of Surveys (FS094)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/d2r-EsylZXU/hey-ask-questions-art-surveys-fs094
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/hey-ask-questions-art-surveys-fs094#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 13:00:19 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17868 So many answers to current problems are in talking to your customers. That’s why we make guides and courses on defining your target market one of the first orders of business here at Fizzle. And yet, it’s a weapon even successful entrepreneurs forget to use. ]]>

So many answers to current problems are in talking to your customers. That’s why we make guides and courses on defining your target market one of the first orders of business here at Fizzle.

And yet, it’s a weapon even successful entrepreneurs forget to use.

Recently Corbett and I helped Scott Dinsmore with the design of a new website. The first step for me in a project like this is to figure out the heart and soul of his business. So we sent Scott off to record some interviews. I wanted to hear it from the horses’ mouths.

In all honesty, he set out on that task dragging his feet. “What should I say? What do we need to get out of these?” I gave him some guidance and forced him to dive in.

When he did, when he started hearing the stories of his audience members he got hooked:

“These conversations you made me have were probably the single most important thing I did last year!”

We’re huge fans of talking to customers to get your next big idea or figure out how to better execute your current plan.

In this episode we talk about a specific way to hear from your customers: surveys. We’ve conducted a massive NPS survey with our customers recently and we wanted to share how to do something like this with your own audience. Enjoy!

Show Notes

The One Number You Need to Grow – HBR — “The CEOs in the room knew all about the power of loyalty. They had already transformed their companies into industry leaders, largely by building intensely loyal relationships with customers and employees.”

Show Notes

The One Number You Need to Grow – HBR — “The CEOs in the room knew all about the power of loyalty. They had already transformed their companies into industry leaders, largely by building intensely loyal relationships with customers and employees.”

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/hey-ask-questions-art-surveys-fs094/feed10http://fizzle.co/sparkline/hey-ask-questions-art-surveys-fs094Fear and Loathing in My Second Startuphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/9NUUApD8GqQ/fear-loathing-second-startup
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/fear-loathing-second-startup#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 13:00:53 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17858 Six and a half years ago I started a company that would become my first success. In less than two years, it allowed me to support my family without any other income. The business was a simple meal planner called Paleo Plan. It was my 6th attempt at an online business. After several years of fizzled ideas and false peaks I had finally quit my job and truly become my own boss. ]]>

Six and a half years ago I started a company that would become my first success. In less than two years, it allowed me to support my family without any other income.

The business was a simple meal planner called Paleo Plan. It was my 6th attempt at an online business. After several years of fizzled ideas and false peaks I had finally quit my job and truly become my own boss.

Note from Chase: This is an article from a Jason Glaspey, a guy I’ve taken a lot of great business advice from over the years. When Jason talks I listen, and this sincere story from him is no exception. Enjoy!

When I started Paleo Plan I was in the shadow of one of those fizzled ideas. After 18 months on that project we still hadn’t shipped, failing to earn even a dollar of revenue.

With that failure fresh in mind I decided I’d try to build Paleo Plan in just three weeks. I did it.

All in, I spent under $1500 to get it going. Unlike the other projects, this one stuck. We got traction, we learned from our audience, we made improvements and, 5 years later I felt tremendous pride and confidence, knowing we’d helped thousands of people improve their health.

That was last year. I was at the helm of my first successful company, and I was getting anxious to start something new. I love to build far more than maintain, and the majority of big problems that I was good at solving had been solved.

So I sold a majority ownership in Paleo Plan and stepped back to invest more time in my next project. I wanted to prove to myself that my previous success wasn’t a fluke or merely an issue of good timing, to see if I could build another successful company from scratch.

When I launched Paleo Plan I didn’t feel tremendous fear or anxiety because it cost so little in time and resources to start it. I’d already failed on several other attempts, so that didn’t scare me. I also was running it as a side project for the first year before it grew to a point that it demanded I treat it like a real venture. In many ways, with that company, I was able to escape the internal demons that can paralyze many entrepreneurs. I had landed on my feet with a functioning company—never giving those demons a chance to tell me I was a failure.

So, last June, when I first vocalized what would come next, I had all the confidence in the world. My new venture—I called it Factory, the name stuck—was obviously going to take more time and capital to get going than my previous company. I knew that going into it, and I was prepared to put out the money to move us forward anyway. We were starting a digital publishing company, and I was convinced we had the right team, the right products, and the right strategy to make things people loved enough to pay for. I even knew how we’d get loads of traffic. It seemed all I had to do was make a few ebooks and everything would start falling into place.

By the way, a couple key differences this time were, 1. my family was already relying on me to be the bread winner, so I wouldn’t have 18 months to see if this would work and I could earn a full income. And 2. I was bootstrapping the company with my own savings, paying salaries, invoices and contractors from my own coffers. Despite this severely increased risk, I had so much confidence from my previous success that I just plowed forward.

But it didn’t quite work out the way I imagined it.

Our first book was a few weeks late. Not a big deal. I was prepared for that to happen. But then we launched and some partners I was sure would be on board with promoting it were a little hard to convince.

It was my first product under this new company and I didn’t have any sales numbers to back up my assertions. The relationships I was counting on were new as well, so despite my previous success they weren’t rushing at the chance to partner with me. At Paleo Plan, it was a totally different market and a totally different type of product, so even though the practices of selling digital content were the same, I had to start all over again with convincing people to trust me (or even just answer my emails).

Soon, we had some issues with our second author, and we had to painfully decide to end that relationship and start from scratch without her. Not a huge financial loss, but it cost us time and a bit of our momentum, as well as some optimism. We were now 2 months behind on our second project.

We’d also made a few small tweaks to our business plan as we went along, which is normal. Our biggest change, however, came when we decided to focus early efforts on one core demographic, building a marketplace just for them, selling both our own content and others’. I still believe it was the right decision, but it meant another 2-3 months before we were in a position to make any revenue progress… which is pretty damn scary when you’re already months behind in revenue and paying for every idea out of your own pocket.

Our first product was selling well, but we were so far from paying our bills that, at times, I became overwhelmed with this fear: I had made a huge mistake. “Our savings account will be diminished. None of these ideas, nothing we’re trying will work.” It wasn’t just a sense of responsibility, it was sharp moments of complete paralyzation based in fear.

Soon, I found myself dreading the office, or worse, almost purposefully not getting anything done when I was at my desk. I found myself actively hoping an email would come in so I would have something to respond to, some urgent but unimportant task to do instead of the things that I knew I should be working on. I’d get wrapped up in Quora posts for an hour or more as I educated myself on all kinds of inane information. I didn’t immediately recognize it, but I had slipped into a type of fear-based depression. And at the end of each day, I’d be completely dejected and disappointed in myself as I walked downstairs to see my family, trying not to let them see how much I felt like a failure.

Then I got a tiny glimmer of hope… and it was huge.

I talked to my wife about how I was feeling. She was patient, listened to me and I was incredibly thankful for how understanding she was. She didn’t make me feel bad or add to my stress, she simply asked what she could do and reminded me that she supported me. It didn’t conquer the fears, but it was a huge help.

Then something weird happened. Sitting on my couch one night I had an idea. Nothing big, just a thought that might help us grow in a tiny little way. It wasn’t much at all, but it had an energy to it, like it was somehow refreshing my attitude. It reminded me that I wasn’t a failure, that I had good ideas, that we were going to put some great things in a lot of people’s hands. It reminded me that I could be optimistic… I just had to be patient.

That small moment with an even smaller idea made a monumental impact on my attitude moving forward. I came out of my funk and I haven’t looked back since. I never would have guessed that it would have made such an impact, but I’m thankful it did.

The idea, by the way, was that in addition to making products to sell, we should also invest in making products that would be free. A tiny idea, nothing important, but it shifted my thinking. It was a way we could show we were in it for the long haul, that we were committed to doing good work. We knew our content was so damn good that we could afford to give some away. That was the company I wanted to build, and this simple little idea reinvigorated my vision. Confidence in the other products resurfaced, I set the fear aside (and the Quora threads) and got back to work.

Don’t be afraid of fear. Acknowledge it and move on.

My biggest takeaway, especially for you Fizzlers out there, is that it’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to occasionally have doubts. We’re pioneers forging new roads and trying new things, and we’re proving to ourselves and everyone else that we have what it takes. Even with success in my past, starting a company continues to strong-arm me into more vulnerability, uncertainty and fear than almost anything else I’ve experienced.

After the success of my first company, I never expected to be afraid again. I thought I was beyond it, I thought I’d just roll right into another success. It wasn’t just cockiness. I trusted myself more after that success. However, the playing field leveled very fast when things weren’t going how I expected, and I became just another player in the game.

I now more fully respect the job of being an entrepreneur. It’s like the ocean — you don’t just run into pounding surf willy-nilly. The same is true with what you’re trying to build… the waves will come. Don’t lose heart.

If the fear, uncertainty and doubt come charging in on you, I can only say this:

Allow things to take time.

Allow yourself to make changes, big and small, to your business plan.

You’re not alone.

In the end, the only thing that assures failure is if you start to believe it enough to quit.

Please, if you read this and find any of it useful, let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear if my struggle helped you.

Jason Glaspey is the founder of Factory, a publisher designed for independents and the digital age. He’s currently building The Startup Library, a digital library for startups and the entrepreneurs that make them happen.

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/fear-loathing-second-startup/feed34http://fizzle.co/sparkline/fear-loathing-second-startupTake Your Brick and Mortar Business Online With These Terribly Important Questions (FS093)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/odmt87rEruo/take-brick-mortar-business-online-terribly-important-questions-fs093
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/take-brick-mortar-business-online-terribly-important-questions-fs093#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 13:00:21 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17845 On the show today we answer a great question from a listener who wants to bring his brick and mortar business online. What should he be thinking about? What are the common roadblocks and challenges? What are some unfair advantages brick and mortar businesses could take advantage of? ]]>

On the show today we answer a great question from a listener who wants to bring his brick and mortar business online.

What should he be thinking about? What are the common roadblocks and challenges? What are some unfair advantages brick and mortar businesses could take advantage of?

Our answers to those questions on the show today. If you’ve got a local business you definitely want to pay attention to this one. Enjoy!

Take your brick and mortar business online with these terribly important questionsTweet This

Questions to ask yourself:

If you run a brick and mortar business and you’re thinking of taking it online, you’ll definitely want to listen to the whole show today. Below I’ve put together some notes for you to keep track of what we talk about.

You sure you need to do this? — Why not expand the reach of your current methods or add more items to sell?

Do you know exactly who you want to sell to? — In Patrick’s example he’s selling directly to restaurants in Memphis. When you go online will your current customer target shift? Consumers and chefs are two very different targets, requiring different kinds of marketing, calls to action, etc. You’ll need to identify your target market early on.

For each item you’re going to sell, how much do you make in profit after production costs, labor and shipping? — This is about pricing and scale. Can you make money if you’re only selling X amount of Y product per month?

Can you try a pre-sale first? — Why not try this out and see if you can drum up some interest? Gumroad has this feature and makes it real simple to test for interest.

Where are you? — Location matters! Local marketing is a much different thing, even though you’ll be selling nationally and maybe internationally, don’t short sell your local presence.

Who could you approach to mentor you? — You’re going to have to crack a whole bunch of new nuts. Approach a few people who’ve been there before to help you anticipate the sticky stuff!

What’s the story about your package/product? — It’s not just a cup of coffee, it’s a fair trade farmer’s livelihood. It’s not just vegetables, it’s microgreens from a family farm. Don’t bore me with it, but make sure I feel the story as I quickly peruse the product.

What existing sites/communities could you partner with? — Marketing is going to be one of your hardest problems.

What shipping material will you need? — This is a real expense and a real part of fulfilling these orders. Spend an hour figuring this out.

What exactly are you going to sell? — can you organize things into packages? are they totally individual?

Show Notes

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/take-brick-mortar-business-online-terribly-important-questions-fs093/feed6http://fizzle.co/sparkline/take-brick-mortar-business-online-terribly-important-questions-fs093Business Ideas we Love (+ current events) (FS092)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/qt-CBdYUgug/business-ideas-love-current-events-fs092
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/business-ideas-love-current-events-fs092#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 13:00:30 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17800Buttered coffee, infographic research tips, the importance of LinkedIn profiles and what podcast to listen to next… all this and more covered on the show today.

I’m curious, what are some new businesses you’ve fallen in love with recently? Tell me in the comments.

The important bits for me are not the weight loss stuff, but, rather, the sleep stuff.

We get into some coffee and vitamin stuff that’s been helpful for each of us.

13:00 Who’s coming to Davos 2015? — “Over 40 heads of state and government, as well as 2,500 other leaders from business and society will convene at the 45th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, from 21 to 24 January 2015 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, to discuss The New Global Context.”

Barrett is getting ready to go to Switzerland.

How did he get to go to this, you ask? Well, it starts with “my LinkedIn profile…”

Tip: use google images to search for infographics about a topic. It’s nice to get actionable stats to include in your blog or book or whatever, even better to get the sources of those stats and follow up.

Millennials are the most inclusive generation. Breakfast Club vs Glee. This ted talk was great.

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/business-ideas-love-current-events-fs092/feed5http://fizzle.co/sparkline/business-ideas-love-current-events-fs092Why 16% of Customers Wouldn’t Recommend Fizzle (and How We Found Out)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/2r1Ak3oS-tk/net-promoter-survey
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/net-promoter-survey#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 13:45:09 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17798 Small businesses live and die by what our customers think of us. Staying intimately connected to your customer base isn't just advised, it's essential to your very survival. On The Fizzle Show, we often recommend talking with customers frequently, through both in-depth one-on-one interviews, responsive and frequent email conversations, and through surveys. ]]>

Small businesses live and die by what our customers think of us. Staying intimately connected to your customer base isn’t just advised, it’s essential to your very survival.

On The Fizzle Show, we often recommend talking with customers frequently, through both in-depth one-on-one interviews, responsive and frequent email conversations, and through surveys.

Each approach has different benefits. Interviews are great for really getting to know one customer’s perspective, problems, and how your solution fits in. Surveys are great for finding out how well you’re doing across the board.

But what about measuring your progress on a standard scale over time? How can you use surveys to find out if your solution is becoming more valuable to your average customer?

This is where the Net Promoter Score (NPS) comes in. NPS is sometimes called the “one number you need to grow,” and it’s based on a 2003 Harvard Business Review article by Fred Reichheld.

The NPS survey consists of two questions, and results in one score that could range between -100 and 100. Essentially, each customer is asked “how likely are you to refer us to a friend or colleague?” on a scale of 0 to 10. Those responses are merged into three groups: detractors (0 to 6), passives (7 to 8) and promoters (9 to 10).

Here’s what our survey looked like:

You then subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get your final score. If you had 100% promoters, with no detractors or passives, your score would equal 100.

Anything between 0 and 50 is considered good, between 50 and 70 is excellent, and above 70 is “world class.”

How Fizzle Scored

On the Fizzle team, we’ve been working hard to achieve true product/market fit, or “traction.” We’ve had a great couple of years, and have grown to over 1,800 active members currently, but still haven’t gotten to consistent month-over-month growth, which is something we’re striving for this year.

The Net Promoter Score can help your company inch toward product/market fit by letting you know why people stay and why people leave. Do more of the former and less of the latter, and your score should improve.

We sent the NPS survey using a tool called Promoter.io (more on that in a minute) to 1,750+ paying members last week. Here is how we fared:

What does a score of 39 mean? NPS practitioners advise not to be tempted to compare your score to other companies, unless you’re in the same market. Knowing that we earned a 39 and Verizon earned a 32 is meaningless because the problems we solve are so different.

Instead, you should focus on comparing your own score to itself over time. Measure now, implement changes, measure again and see if your score improves.

For us, the score of 39 was somewhat confusing. We’ve read about companies like Groove (customer support software), which first earned an 11, then improved to a 16. Groove has achieved consistent month-over-month growth and appears to have true product/market fit, despite having a score of 16. I have a feeling this is exactly why it is recommended that you not compare your scores directly…

However, aside from the raw score, they survey also produces something that should be incredibly valuable. Each customer is also asked “what is the most important reason for your score?” and given a chance to answer with free-form text. The responses to that question represent your opportunity to improve.

I mentioned Promoter.io before. Promoter is a tool that automates much of the NPS survey process. Calculating your score and categorizing feedback would be a pain on your own, so Promoter.io does some of this for you. The tool wasn’t perfect, but it certainly saved us some time, and the CEO Chad Keck was very responsive to my feedback and he promised many upcoming features that should make the tool even better.

Of course, Promoter.io sent me an NPS survey about their business, for which I gave them a score of “8.” I can’t yet rave about the tool because there were a handful of issues that made using the tool take longer than it could. All told, I spent around 10-15 hours administering the survey, responding to customers and categorizing feedback. That makes me a “passive” in the NPS lingo for Promoter.io, but the CEO’s reply made me want to tell you about them. Plus, I’m not aware of any other tool that does a similar job, and this fit a real need for us. If you’re planning to run an NPS survey definitely check them out.

What We Learned from Customer Feedback

One of the important things Promoter.io helps with is capturing feedback and helping you categorize it. Here’s an example of some rave feedback we received:

And here’s one response from a “passive” customer:

And finally, here’s an example of a response from a customer that fits in the “detractor” category:

16% of responses had a score of 6 or less, and there is a ton to learn from the feedback. 84% of responses had a score of 7 and above, and we’re examining the positive responses to learn what we should do more of.

Here are the top 5 things our customers raved about:

Content/courses

Community

Value/price

The podcast

Our helpfulness, support and the results people get

And here are the top 5 reasons people couldn’t recommend us:

Not enough time to use Fizzle

Friends aren’t entrepreneurs

Forums/community aren’t useful enough

Too self-guided, not enough coaching

We go off topic too often / there’s too much noise

It’s too early to tell you exactly what we plan to change as a result of this feedback, but the entire process generated a bunch of new ideas, and validated several projects we already had in the works.

If you haven’t surveyed your customers recently, I definitely recommend giving the Net Promoter Score framework a try. Promoter.io made it fairly easy to administer, and we’ve been learning a ton.

Questions about Fizzle’s NPS survey, our results, or the NPS process in general? Ask below and we’re happy to answer!

If you’ve tried NPS or any other customer feedback survey systems, I’d love to hear about your experience below.

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/net-promoter-survey/feed26http://fizzle.co/sparkline/net-promoter-survey10 Business Archetypes: How to Choose a Business Model That Makes Sense (and Money, FS091)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/N6Z_W_AY3ks/10-business-archetypes-choose-business-model-makes-sense-money-fs091
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/10-business-archetypes-choose-business-model-makes-sense-money-fs091#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 13:00:43 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17698no idea how they’re going to make money or they’re too confident in some vague, doubtful scheme for revenue. ]]>Most of the people we meet who want to start a blog or podcast or business either have no idea how they’re going to make money or they’re too confident in some vague, doubtful scheme for revenue.

This is fine. It’s how I got started — vague, hopeful schemes. And, to be honest, it’s where I expected most people to start because you learn so much along the way.

But I’ve changed my mind. In the past year I’ve seen how valuable it can be to learn from someone else’s path (even from afar). When you have a little clarity and vision about how you could get started making money your path is more directed, there’s more clarity and focus.

So we created an email series to help people move from “I want to be an entrepreneur” to “I have a real business idea.” (You’ll get that email series free when you signup here.) A major part of that series became understanding 10 business archetypes, knowing how they work, what the differences are between them and who you can watch and learn from.

In this episode of the podcast we share those 10 business archetypes with some colorful commentary. For many, forcing themselves to choose from this list (even though it is not comprehensive or mandatory) leads to clarity and some new ideas about how to grow into the next stage of their business.

10 Business Archetypes: How to Choose a Business Model That Makes Sense (and Money)Tweet This

The 10 Business Models

As I mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list. Your business might fit comfortably into one of these buckets. It might not. This is all for the exercise of making some decisions, getting some new clarity and finding who out there you can learn from (even if they’re in a totally different industry).

I’ve added the timecode for each so you can re-listen to bits and pieces. But do give the whole conversation a go… there’s a lot to pickup from the 10,000 ft. view.

1. The Teacher (11 min) — the teacher researches specific topics, tactics, and strategies to help her customers solve specific problems. Rather than delivering them through freelancing or traditional books, the teacher uses digital products like ebooks, courses, and membership sites. Examples of teachers include Marie Forleo, Nathan Barry, and Jordan Harbinger.

2. The Thought Leader (13m) — The thought leader focuses on spreading ideas and sharing new research through public speaking and books. You can find her on the public speaking circuit or in a local bookstore for a book tour. Examples include Josh Shipp, Brene Brown, James Clear and Josh Kaufman.

3. The Mediapreneur (17m) — the mediapreneur can take many forms, including podcaster, newsletter curator, or food blogger. What ties them all together is their source of income from affiliate marketing, advertising, donations and sponsorships. Examples of mediapreneurs include Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas and David Siteman Garland, Brain Pickings. The audience is the product. Good notes in the conversation on this one.

4. The Freelancer (25m) — the freelancer uses her skills to help others build their businesses. Common freelancing skills include web design, web development, social media, photography, copywriting, and business consulting. Sometimes freelancers will team up with other freelancers to form an agency or firm. Examples of freelancers include Paul Jarvis, Amy Porterfield, and John Jantsch.

5. The Coach (31m) — the coach unlocks the potential of individuals. She uses the tools of listening, questioning, and guiding to help her clients reach their goals. This differs from the freelancer in that she exclusively works with individual clients. Examples of coaches include Jenny Blake, Natalie Sisson, Jerry Colonna and Peter Shallard.

6. The Artist (37m) — the artist is a purist who loves the art for what it means to him. However, he recognizes the need to make a living, so he chooses to sell his paintings, photography, or sculptures directly to his customers. Examples of artists include Hugh MacLeod, Austin Kleon and Death to the Stock Photo.

7. The Maker (42m) — the maker is a craftswoman/man. She makes jewelry in her workshop. He makes furniture in his wood shop. She creates monogrammed linens in her spare bedroom. They use ecommerce platforms to sell their wares directly to customers. The maker differs from the artist in that he makes functional products rather than art. Examples of makers include Lamon Luther, StudioNeat and Andreea Ayers.

8. The Curator (44m) — The marketer is much like the maker. However, rather than making and selling her own goods, the marketer buys and sells goods from other makers through storytelling and ecommerce. Examples of marketers include Need Edition and Kaufmann Mercantile.

9. The Engineer (51m) — The engineer uses her technical skills to build tools for others. She focuses on solving problems through technology. Examples include Studiopress, Buffer, ConvertKit and Gumroad.

10. The Retailer (53m) — the retailer is an entrepreneur who has been around the block and sees an opportunity to lead his industry into the digital age. He is a real estate agent, coffee shop owner, or insurance broker who sees the power of the web to grow his business. Examples of these are a little bit harder to find. Chase’s wife’s Portland real estate team is one we mention.

What else? — Are there others you see as a different business model? I’m curious to hear what you think.

The Questions

1. If you had a magic wand and you would immediately have a successful business, which business model above would you choose? Removing all the obstacles, which one feels like the best fit for you?

2. Who in the same business type as you could you observe and watch and learn from? How would they plan your next business moves? Who are the people in business you admire?

3. Let’s say in 10 years you’ve successfully combined 3 of these business models. Which ones do you want them to be?

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/10-business-archetypes-choose-business-model-makes-sense-money-fs091/feed51http://fizzle.co/sparkline/10-business-archetypes-choose-business-model-makes-sense-money-fs091Entrepreneurs: Why You Need Both a Personal Workflow and a Company Operating Systemhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/CqRjxUqjy9g/project-management-for-entrepreneurs
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 17:53:48 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17774I walked into the Starbucks, took a look around and then saw a friendly wave from the Fizzler I was there to meet. We were sitting down to catch up and chat about his growing business, and he had already grabbed a table for us.

After some quick small talk, Bruce* jumped right into his exciting plans for the next year in his business. He told me he made more than a full time living from his business in 2014 and he was excited to begin investing some of the proceeds in helping the company grow.

(*Bruce is, perhaps obviously, not his real name.)

Bruce's workflow in 2014 included:

Weekly blog posts

Weekly podcast episodes

Managing his one employee who handles customer support

Quarterly webinars to teach about the concepts from his products

Marketing three information products

Running affiliate sales for complementary products he believes in

Planning for a new software app

Planning for a new live event

Looking to 2015, he had goals like:

Bring on contributing writers to increase frequency of blog posts

Hire an editor for his podcast

Expand weekly content to include YouTube videos

Hire an editor for his videos

Launch and market the new software app

Launch and market the new live event

Double revenue

Just reading that list could be intimidating, let alone thinking about trying to execute on everything as a solo business owner… And we wonder why entrepreneurs can have a hard time keeping track of everything going on in our businesses.

The problem is simple: it's a lot of work to keep a business running, even an online business, and to make it happen we have to take on a ton of projects.

The question both of these leave most entrepreneurs with is this: what does this look like in practice? When I'm in the middle of a project, how do I make sure I stay on track?

The secret lies in creating both a personal workflow and a company operating system. I want to share some of the things we've learned at Fizzle, so you can implement a personal workflow and company operating system that will make your business life run smooth as silk.

Creating a Personal Workflow

Your personal workflow is all about how to schedule your work on a weekly basis to make sure you're moving closer to your goals.

Start by doing an inventory of everything you do to keep your business running on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Think about things like your blog/podcast/video content, social media, accounting, customer support, email, affiliate tracking, etc.

Make sure to account for everything (sometimes we overlook tasks so ingrained in our daily activity, we forget they're mission critical).

Next, mark each task as daily, weekly, or monthly. For each weekly task, consider which day of the week is best. If you publish a podcast every Friday, maybe it's best to record on Monday, edit on Wednesday, schedule for publish on Thursday, and promote to your email list and social media followers on Friday. Do this for each of the items on your list.

Here's the beautiful part of this process: you don't have to keep track of these items every day or week if you use a task management software. Whether you use Asana, Basecamp, Evernote, or something else (we use Asana at Fizzle), you can set recurring tasks.

For example, if you plan to record your podcast episodes on Monday, set that task for next Monday and then set it to repeat every Monday. If you do this for all of your recurring tasks, you can stop thinking about it and rely on your task management software to do the thinking for you.

Having your ongoing work pre-scheduled means you have more bandwidth to focus on your project-based work.Project work includes thing like building products, creating new email autoresponders, or building a new app. Basically, anything that gets shipped once and then maintained is a project.

As you get used to your ongoing work you've already scheduled, you'll be able to gauge how much bandwidth you have to dedicate to projects. Based on this, you can schedule time each week for project work. For example, if you have customer support and podcast recording every Monday and you're full time in your business, you might have 2-4 hours left for project-based work.

This all gets wrapped up in a bow by using a weekly checkin/checkout process (even for solopreneurs), which we'll talk about in the company operating system next.

Creating a Company Operating System

If a personal workflow helps you define and schedule the most important work you do, a company operating system helps you or your team keep track of the work being done (and the work yet to be done). It will help you and your team (or your mastermind group) hold each other accountable, celebrate wins, and keep your high level plans in focus.

Weekly Checkins and Checkouts

The first element of a great company operating system is a weekly checkin/checkout system. A weekly checkin is basically a to-do list for the week. Here's an example of one of my checkins from Fizzle:

Our checkins answer three basic questions:

What are you planning to work on this week?

Are you off any days this week?

Do you need help with anything?

It sets clear expectations for what should be done at the end of the week, it preps the team for me being out of the office, and it lets everyone know how we can help one another get certain projects across the finish line. We checkin first thing on Monday mornings.

Then, at the end of the week, we checkout by answering three more questions:

What did you work on this week?

Are you off any days next week?

On my mind for next week:

I own up to what I got done and didn't get done, let the team know if/when I'll be out next week, and I set my intention for next week's workflow. I usually take the time to create my detailed to-do list for the week following so that on Monday morning I can simply copy, paste and get to work. We usually checkout last thing on Fridays.

Weekly Team Meetings

The second element of a great company operating system is a weekly team meeting. We use this weekly hour-long meeting to have discussions about project ideas, make important decisions about how to move forward and catch up personally since we work remotely. We have our meetings on Wednesday afternoons at Fizzle, which is a nice way to break up the week.

On the first Wednesday of every month, we have a 90 minute meeting to look at the project work we intended to do that month, what we actually accomplished that month, and then we set our goals for project work for the month ahead.

On the first Wednesday of every quarter (January, April, July, October), we have a 2-3 hour strategic planning meeting. This is our time to look back at our annual plan, check the box on any goals we've already reached or projects we've already shipped, consider whether we have new information that should change the plan, and then decide on the projects we should try to tackle in the quarter ahead. This is like a mini annual planning session.

To make your meetings as useful as possible, consider picking up a copy of the 60ish page book by Al Pittampali, Read This Before Our Next Meeting. It'll give you a great format for making the most of your team's time together.

If you're a solopreneur, you could use a similar format in your mastermind group. You might even consider setting up a Slack team for your group so you can easily share your annual checkins with each other. We use a special channel in Slack to share our weekly plans.

Slack is a great tool we use for team collaboration at Fizzle. It has replaced email for us and integrates with nearly every entrepreneurial tool on earth.

One-on-Ones (Solopreneurs can skip this part)

In a very small business, team chemistry is everything. We've found weekly team meetings to be important for project planning and making key decisions for the business. Because we're so focused on an agenda and getting things done, we don't have as much time to catch up on a personal level or explore new ideas just for fun.

Every other week, we have one-on-one meetings between each person on the team. Chase and I meet every other week, Corbett and I meet every other week, and Chase and Corbett meet every other week.

These one-on-one meetings are a bit less structured, giving us time to enjoy conversation, ask about each other's personal lives, and chat about new ideas we've had from a podcast or book.

You might think these are a waste of time, but whether your team is remote or in person, I think you'll find great value in the time spent together. Relationships build shared understanding and direction, which lead to better collaboration and culture. Culture is everything in a team environment.

A Shared Vacation Calendar (Solopreneurs can skip this part)

The last important element of our company operating system is a shared vacation calendar. Like many startups and companies with highly engaged employees, we don't have a vacation policy. Our vacation policy is something like: take the time you need to enjoy life and do your job well.

It's a wonderful aspect of working in a business like Fizzle, but it can also be hectic if the team doesn't communicate about who's out and when. The simple solution for us was a shared Google calendar where everyone fills in their vacation and travel days as soon as they know about them.

It's been an easy way to plan our work around our lives and something we've found really valuable.

Back to Bruce

Remember Bruce from the beginning of the post? He walked away from our meeting with a plan for the first quarter of the year, a personal workflow and the beginnings of a company operating system. These were the three things he needed to feel like he had a firm grasp on the goals he wants to achieve.

We haven't seen the results yet, but I suspect they'll be pretty impressive. At least I know they have been for Fizzle since we implemented the same advice in our business. I think it'll do the same for you.

What questions do you have about personal workflows and company operating systems? Have you done something similar in your business? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs/feed22http://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneursHow to Pick the Right Domain Name (+ 11 Domain Name Tools, FS090)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/pse6RYtmmvk/pick-right-domain-name-11-domain-name-tools
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/pick-right-domain-name-11-domain-name-tools#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 13:00:36 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17667“I’m struggling to settle on a domain name! The one I want is already taken. Are hyphens ok? What about using a .biz or .net or .co? Help!”

Have you ever asked questions like these? We get them in the forums and emails all the time. It’s time we shared our honest advice and stories on it.

In this episode we get into all the important domain name issues like choosing a TLD (.com, .co, .net, etc.), dealing with trademarks, choosing registrars, hosting, competitive research, etc.

And below I list off a bunch of topics (and the time in the podcast we mention them) as well as a boat load of tools to help you. Enjoy!

YOUR DOMAIN NAME MATTERS—but not as much as your business still being around in 5 years Tweet This

Where to buy domains

1. First timer: If you’re not already into WordPress, just go with Squarespace. 24/7 support, beautiful themes, reliable, professional, etc. If I was starting today, I would go this way (and I’ve been designing websites for 10 years).

2. First timer + WordPress: If you want to use WordPress and don’t own a bunch of domains just go to Bluehost ($3.95/mo discount through that affiliate link) and buy your domain there and setup your new website! (They make it real easy.)

3. Intermediate: If you own a handful of domains (or plan to) buy your domains through one of these. You’ll be able to setup your hosting with anyone.

]]>http://fizzle.co/sparkline/pick-right-domain-name-11-domain-name-tools/feed35http://fizzle.co/sparkline/pick-right-domain-name-11-domain-name-toolsWhy You Can’t Afford to Be a Generalisthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freepursuits/~3/ZSc3f-QQllo/generalist
http://fizzle.co/sparkline/generalist#commentsTue, 27 Jan 2015 13:45:17 +0000http://fizzle.co/?p=17649 If you consider yourself a generalist, here's the good news: doing great work in the future will require the skills of a generalist, especially if you work independently or on a small team. And more and more of us are working independently these days. 40% of American workers will be freelancers by 2020 (and according to Freelancer's Union, 33% of us already are) and freelancers need to be generalists to be successful. You have to know a little bit of everything. ]]>

If you consider yourself a generalist, here’s the good news: doing great work in the future will require the skills of a generalist, especially if you work independently or on a small team.

Company founders need to be generalists too. Running a business requires wearing so many hats!

But here’s the problem: you can’t afford to just be a generalist. People get hired for a specialty or a small set of deep skills. Products get purchased for the specific problem they solve. Businesses get built on concrete expertise.

If you’ve been wearing the generalist title proudly, you’re making your life hard. I know because I used to carefully craft my resume to paint myself as a jack of all trades. When I decided to brand myself first as a software developer, then as a project manager, and later as the traffic guy when I went on my own, that’s when things got good and everything became possible.

Where does a generalist apply for a position on the job boards? Where is the “generalist needed” section in Craigslist? How does a founder with only shallow skills get her first prototype off the ground?

The motivation for being a generalist is understandable. It’s fun to learn new things. It’s great to know a little about a lot. The rush of diving into a new topic is something you can count on.

But this is also a cop-out. The easiest learning comes in the first 20 hours. You can learn a lot when something is fresh and exciting. But can you learn a skill that’s sellable in 20 hours?

Becoming a generalist happens to people like us who get really excited about a new thing and can’t help but learn everything we can… until we get bored and move on to the next thing.

Being a specialist is about discipline, and generalists find this kind of discipline hard to come by.

But you have to be an expert in something, or a handful of things, if you expect to charge top rates, land the coveted jobs, or create the next hot product.

Otherwise it’s all branding and no skills. An inch deep and a mile wide.

Forcing yourself to be solely a specialist isn’t the answer either. Specialists have to rely on other people too much and bear too much risk that the market might change.

The intersection of the two is where the magic happens. Become an expert and a generalist at the same time, and you’ll be unstoppable.

And here’s the ironic part: once you become an expert at something, your generalist skills will be more valuable than ever. The expertise gets your foot in the door. It makes you valuable and opens opportunities. Once you land the opportunities, you can embrace your generalist nature all you want.

The trick is figuring out what to become an expert at, and how to find the discipline you need to stick with it.

Those are the two questions you should be asking yourself. Instead of “what should I learn next” ask yourself: “what skill is valuable and interesting enough for me to become one of the world’s best at?” Then ask yourself where you’ll find the motivation and create the habits to follow through.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share your take on being a generalist in the comments below.

You have to start doing the work it takes to be an expert and a generalist at the same time.Tweet This